Merchant account credit card processing
Some small online businesses today have the marketing and the website part of the business down, even topped off with a shopping cart system. Some of these enterprises prefer to stop the process here, as they feel that the business can operate on its own. While this is true, there still remains the most vital part of the entire process: the payment system. While meeting up or sending money through a courier are effective, they are both severely outdated, and the entire processing system is slowed down. The future now rests on both credit and debit cards, statistically the most preferred mode of payment of the country. With the fast-paced world of business, having a merchant account that allows credit card payment has become essential, or else you will be denying your business with a large variety of benefits, regardless of the size of your enterprise.
Online credit card processing
Before setting up an account, merchants have to make sure that they are completely aware of the process to be able to understand the its essence, and this can be reflected through the certain terms that they are expected to know. Some of these include the following:
Online credit card processing
Payment gateways. These are the processors that verify the account information of the customer and create funnels for the money to be transferred from the credit card of the customer to the business owner's merchant account.
Acquirer. This involves the bank that processes and settles the transactions of a merchant through the help of a card issuer.
Issuer. An issue is any financial institution that issues or helps issue cards to their potential cardholders.
Card network. The most commonly known processing networks being Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, these payment methods act as the bridge from the acquirer to the issuer to authorize credit card transactions.
Automated Clearing House. More commonly known by its abbreviation (ACH), the Automated Clearing House can be likened to an electronic payment from one bank account to another. The transaction begins when a business debits an account through submitting an ACH file. This file contains all the ABA numbers, the amounts to debit, and the account numbers. The file will be processed nightly and will pass through networks controlled by the Federal Reserve.
Batch, or Batch Processing. A batch is a collection of transactions, usually per day. Processing, therefore, refers to the closing or the settling of an entire batch of transactions at one time. The point of sale terminal or the software can be chosen to either be on manual batch close or automatic batch close. For the former, the merchant needs to batch out by the end of the day, sending the processor a command to settle all transactions entered at the time. From this, a report is then printed out to show the totals in the batch. Before settling a batch, however, changes can be made to the existing transactions. Automatic batch close, on the other hand, does not require a manual intervention by the merchant. Instead, the terminal or software automatically closes the batch and settles the transactions at a certain time of the day, or at the processor level.
Online credit card processing
Online credit card processing
Before setting up an account, merchants have to make sure that they are completely aware of the process to be able to understand the its essence, and this can be reflected through the certain terms that they are expected to know. Some of these include the following:
Online credit card processing
Payment gateways. These are the processors that verify the account information of the customer and create funnels for the money to be transferred from the credit card of the customer to the business owner's merchant account.
Acquirer. This involves the bank that processes and settles the transactions of a merchant through the help of a card issuer.
Issuer. An issue is any financial institution that issues or helps issue cards to their potential cardholders.
Card network. The most commonly known processing networks being Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, these payment methods act as the bridge from the acquirer to the issuer to authorize credit card transactions.
Automated Clearing House. More commonly known by its abbreviation (ACH), the Automated Clearing House can be likened to an electronic payment from one bank account to another. The transaction begins when a business debits an account through submitting an ACH file. This file contains all the ABA numbers, the amounts to debit, and the account numbers. The file will be processed nightly and will pass through networks controlled by the Federal Reserve.
Batch, or Batch Processing. A batch is a collection of transactions, usually per day. Processing, therefore, refers to the closing or the settling of an entire batch of transactions at one time. The point of sale terminal or the software can be chosen to either be on manual batch close or automatic batch close. For the former, the merchant needs to batch out by the end of the day, sending the processor a command to settle all transactions entered at the time. From this, a report is then printed out to show the totals in the batch. Before settling a batch, however, changes can be made to the existing transactions. Automatic batch close, on the other hand, does not require a manual intervention by the merchant. Instead, the terminal or software automatically closes the batch and settles the transactions at a certain time of the day, or at the processor level.
Online credit card processing